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LOST IN the swirl around the Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County's Covenant Park field complex has been an altering of leadership in the county's largest amateur sports organization. David Procida, a key SAC/HC leader in Covenant Park's acquisition, was voted to a two-year term as the group's president during last month's annual meeting. This doesn't mean that Jim Carlan, who had been SAC/HC president for six years and is in his 29th year with the 6,000-player organization, is going away.

HC DrugFree, a partnership of parents, schools, Howard County agencies and community groups addressing substance abuse by teenagers, will present a talk by Assistant Principal Marcy Leonard, "Developing Leadership & Character in Teens," from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at Wilde Lake High School. Leonard's talk will focus on developing leadership and character as protective "assets" for teenagers. Admission is free. Registration is not required. Information: Laura Smit, 410-799-4879.

The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. on Mondays. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). We do not accept results by phone. When two Howard County teams play, players from both teams (first and last names) must be mentioned in the write-up. Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Basketball Howard County Elite travel Howard County Elite Basketball fielded seven teams at various grade levels in the East Coast Nationals Basketball Tournament held at West Chester University in Pennsylvania June 22-24.

GROUNDBREAKINGS are akin in many ways to weddings, anniversaries or birthday parties and other such family observances. They're milestones, celebrating things positive and the future. Let it rain, as it did yet again last Wednesday morning, and the meaning and enthusiasm don't change. So it was Wednesday with growling Chesapeake Contracting Group earth-moving equipment starting to turn 52 acres off Centennial Lane into what by March, if all goes well, will be eight soccer fields and a headquarters building for the Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County.

By Lisa Silverman and Lisa Silverman,special to the Sun | March 7, 2008

Are middle and high school students likely to attend a "Teen Expo?" In the eyes of HC DrugFree's Teen Advisory Council, there is no way. This is what Jessa Coulter, a senior at Mount Hebron High School, who co-chairs the council, told the board of directors. "None of the adults agreed," Coulter said. "But, it was my job to convince them otherwise, and I did. Teens don't identify with the word expo." As a result of the teens' efforts, the HC DrugFree Job and Volunteer fair kept its original name.

. As executive director of HC DrugFree, Laura Smit reaches out to teenagers and parents on a personal level. "She understands the concerns that many parents have, as well as being aware of the issues that teens are dealing with," said Tina Owens, vice chairwoman of the board of directors. HC DrugFree, which aims to help Howard County residents raise drug-free teenagers, has grown under Smit, the mother of a freshman and a senior at Long Reach High School. Her approachability as the face of HC DrugFree has prompted parents to call her directly in a crisis.

ONE OF the most important public meetings in terms of amateur sports in Howard County since the mid-1990s' lean-budget years is to occur in Ellicott City on Thursday night. That's the Board of Appeals hearing on Covenant Park, the Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County's proposed 10-field complex off Centennial Lane, roughly opposite Centennial Park. The 7:30 p.m. session in the county government's George Howard Building will be a go/no-go moment for SAC/HC, which began thinking a decade ago about building fields.

SO MANY people like to play, watch and hang around sports because of all the ways they can reflect life. Sports can make you feel happy, or sad, or glad, or thrilled, or dismayed, or discouraged or determined. But while games always, in the end, play out for fun, there is at least one indisputable difference between them and real life: War. And so tomorrow morning, Jerry Fischer's wife, son and daughter, other family members and friends - who include many in the Soccer Association of Columbia-Howard County - will wave him goodbye and add him to their prayers for a minimum of six months.

THE SOCCER Association of Columbia-Howard County has dipped again into a homegrown staff for new coaching leadership with the hiring of David Nesbitt as its new technical director, or head of coaching. Nesbitt, 63, has been affiliated with the club - and also coached outside of it - for more than two decades. The Columbia resident has been most visible to the general sports public as boys soccer coach at Wilde Lake High School for 17 years, winning five state titles and being runner-up three times.

As the leading advocate for homeownership and housing issues, the Harford County Association of Realtors joined the National Association of Realtors in honoring Fair Housing Month this April and received a proclamation from the Harford County Council declaring April Fair Housing Month. Carole Milan, chairperson of the Equal Opportunity Committee, led the association Fair Housing Poster Contest among the local students in kindergarten through eighth grade. From the many submitted entries, three students' posters are recognized and submitted to the Maryland Association of Realtors as entries in the state Fair Housing Calendar contest.

A new HC DrugFree program -- Residential Treatment Centers & Wilderness Programs : Facts & Myths -- will be held Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 10375 Little Patuxent Parkway. The program will discuss residential treatment and wilderness program options for teenagers who need more than what can be provided in outpatient counseling once or twice a week. It will familiarize participants with options for residential treatment and when this would not be designated for a given teenager.

By Lisa Silverman and Lisa Silverman,special to the Sun | March 7, 2008

Are middle and high school students likely to attend a "Teen Expo?" In the eyes of HC DrugFree's Teen Advisory Council, there is no way. This is what Jessa Coulter, a senior at Mount Hebron High School, who co-chairs the council, told the board of directors. "None of the adults agreed," Coulter said. "But, it was my job to convince them otherwise, and I did. Teens don't identify with the word expo." As a result of the teens' efforts, the HC DrugFree Job and Volunteer fair kept its original name.

It's not easy to get a 14-year-old to consider being more careful at parties. But that's the effect a program on teen drinking and driving had on Derek Staub, a freshman at Centennial High School. "It did kind of influence me to be more careful when I'm older," Derek said. He was among about 100 students and parents who gathered in the Centennial High auditorium Wednesday night for "Branded `D.U.I' - Consequences for Teens Who Drink and Drive," a program from the nonprofit HC DrugFree.

By Karen Nitkin and Karen Nitkin,special to the sun | February 3, 2008

Eric Reid, 17, said he "sort of had to be dragged" to the presentation about Senior Week put on by HC DrugFree last week. His mother, Crissy Reid, sitting next to him in the Howard High School auditorium, had insisted on it. The Howard High senior, like most new graduates from Maryland and surrounding states, plans to spend a week in June at the beach with his friends, and she wanted to be sure he knew how to stay safe and out of trouble. "He's never been away from home before, unchaperoned," Crissy Reid said.

. As executive director of HC DrugFree, Laura Smit reaches out to teenagers and parents on a personal level. "She understands the concerns that many parents have, as well as being aware of the issues that teens are dealing with," said Tina Owens, vice chairwoman of the board of directors. HC DrugFree, which aims to help Howard County residents raise drug-free teenagers, has grown under Smit, the mother of a freshman and a senior at Long Reach High School. Her approachability as the face of HC DrugFree has prompted parents to call her directly in a crisis.